Blogmas #8

I promised you a hummus recipe earlier, so I shouldn’t procrastinate any longer and just write that recipe. It’s a bit typical to start with a hummus recipe on a vegan blog, but let’s do it anyway.

This was breakfast. Again. Doesn’t it look pretty?

Honestly that’s not how my day started though. Lately I have these rushes of energy in the morning I just can’t waste by stitting down for an hour (yes, I sit down most of the time my oatmeal cooks as I only stir once in a while, if there would be anything I would consider my best talent it would be timing food, and I’m a slow eater). What I did start my day with was decluttering papers. I went from 6 organisers to three, one household and one personal organiser for each of us. The amount of paperwork that comes with mental illness is rediculous. The “Hey, you have trouble dealing with stuff, here’s some more” mentality in those institutions is terrifying. But at least I got to throw out a lot as well. I had breakfast when I was about halfway and finished the job right after breakfast. Then I gave away some more stuff… Honestly those facebook groups are brilliant for those kinds of things, you can donate stuff without even having to leave your house.

Then I went to a very unvegan but very cute local Turkish bakery. All of their plain breads are vegan, cheap and super yummy. Honestly, I don’t know how they do it. And the lady who runs the shop at he quieter hours is so sweet. She doesn’t speak Dutch very well though, so that’s probably the main reason two younger women (probably family members) take over at the busier times. Anyway I’m rambling again.

I went to get bread for the sandwiches we were going to have for dinner, but I decided to get some extra for lunch.

I know, that’s way too much peanut butter for dipping, but I can always cut up another apple. I was quite sceptical about the combination of apple and peanut butter at first, but omg was I wrong, that stuff is good.

I spent most of my time between lunch and dinner reading The life changing magic of tidying up. Dinner was basically two more of those savoury sandwiches.

I feel like I’m just rambling every night because I’m so tired. I’m really not an evening person. I’m staying up several hours longer than usual just to write with this routine. Maybe I should try to write my blogs the next morning instead.

So on to my hummus recipe. This one is so simple and yet it took me so long to get it right. I think my pitfall was that I wanted to make to much in one go. This time instead of a whole bag of chickpeas I decided to use only half. And guess what, I got it right the first time after making that change, so I should probably stick with it. This recipe uses both olive oil and almond milk as a compromise between healthy and rich and creamy. I’ve tried oil free recipes in the past, which called for almond milk instead, but they just missed that rich creaminess that olive oil gives a hummus. Yet traditional recipes contain far too much oil to be even remotely healthy. So I sought balance between the two and I think I nailed it pretty well.

Look at my incredibly unflattering picture. The hummus is good though, I promise.

Why make your own when you can just buy it you ask? For one, no weird stuff nobody can pronounce in your food, it’s a lot healthier than store bought. Secondly, you can play around with different flavours by adding other spices, herbs and even vegetables in the mix. Last but not least, it saves you a ton of money. It’s just redicoulus how much money making your own hummus can save you.

So let’s move on to the ingrediënts. At least this picture is a bit better.

Initially I started out with the following:

250 grams of chickpeas, soaked and cooked (measured when dry)

about one third of a cup of extra virgin olive oil

half a bulb of garlic (adjust to taste)

about half to one teaspoon of salt

half to one teaspoon of black pepper

half to one teaspoon ras el hanout

half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional, but recommended)

half a teaspoon of paprika

a few sprigs of fresh herbs (optional)

Eventually I ended up adding some unsweetened almond milk because it was to dry and I did not want to use any more oil. So have a cup of almond milk ready as well.

I know, I’m a mess, I really should measure my ingredients, but for some reason just winging it works better for me. It’s not very practical for writing recipes though.

So how do you make this recipe?

If you haven’t soaked and boiled your chickpeas yet, start by doing that. It’s most practical to soak your chickpeas right before you go to bed, that way they’re ready to cook right away the next day. This of course goes for all dried beans you have to soak. After soaking cook your chickpeas for 90 minutes. You don’t have to watch them boil the entire time, but make sure to check if they don’t cook dry, they need to be under water the entire time.

Once your chickpeas have cooled rinse and dry them, but there’s no need to get rid of the little peels. Toss all of your ingrediënts in a food processor (a blender works too, but a food processor is more suitable for the job) except for the almond milk, and process until it’s all crumbled up and looks like you could make burgers out of it. Now it’s time to add some almond milk. Just add this slowly, bit by bit, while blending until you reach the desired consisency. If you want to you can serve with a little olive oil poured over it, some paprika or cayenne pepper sprinkled over it or decorated with some fresh herbs, but honestly, it’s good on it’s own.

The next day after I made it I suddenly realized that hummus usually contains lemon or lime juice, but honestly I like it like this. Maybe sprinkling some on top when serving could be nice. Next time I’ll try it with lemon juice and see which version I like better.

So that was it for today. I hope you enjoyed the recipe. Hopefully my next blog will contain less exhausted rambling. Remember though, it will be up at a different time. See you next time, bye!